Jimmy Kimmel Lashes Out at President Trump During Feisty Oscars Opener

Let’s make one thing clear: Jimmy Kimmel is not here to unite the nation.
- byJodi Guglielmi

Feb
2017

Getty Images

Kimmel brought razor-sharp humour to several surprising targets in front of a packed audience at the 89th annual Academy Awards on Sunday night.

“People have been telling me it’s time to bring everyone together, ‘You need to say something to unite us,” Kimmel said. “Let’s just get something straight off the top. I can’t do that.”

But just because Kimmel didn’t have any words of wisdom to unite the country doesn’t mean he shied away from getting political during his opening remarks.

“I want to say thank you to President Trump. Remember last year when it seemed like the Oscars were racist? That’s gone, thanks to him. It has been an amazing year for movies. Black people saved NASA and white people saved jazz. That’s what you call progress.”

And of course, Kimmel couldn’t help but call out the “underrated” Meryl Streep.

“Meryl, stand up if you would,” she said. “Everybody, please join me in giving her a totally under deserved round of applause, will you? The highly overrated Meryl Streep everyone.”

Just after the speech, former Oscars host Ellen DeGeneres tweeted her approval of the speech, joking “that monologue was so brilliant it’s already overrated.” She then announced that “you’ve got this job for life.”

The late night host then joked that the President would likely respond to the night’s event during his “5 a.m. bowel movement.”